Barron report hearing: The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said yesterday he did think there was collusion between Northern Ireland security forces and loyalists over the Dublin/Monaghan bombings.
The Minister was making a submission to and answering questions from the Oireachtas subcommittee which is considering the Barron report into the bombings on May 17th, 1974, in which 33 people lost their lives.
He was asked his views on collusion at the time. Mr McDowell said Mr Justice Barron had come to his views but he believed care should be taken over the use of the word collusion. If it meant Downing Street was making the decisions, then he did not think there was evidence of that.
"If you're talking about some members of the security forces in Northern Ireland, who saw themselves as under siege, actually colluding with people to take on their enemies, I think that collusion did exist of that kind in relation to that event," he said.
Mr McDowell was also questioned about a missing Department file on the Dublin bombings which arose from a Garda investigation report, referred to in the Barron report. He was not aware of evidence that documents had gone missing. "The lack of documentation doesn't imply that it wasn't being dealt with," he said.
The time devoted to security might not necessarily be matched by corresponding documentation. Given the enormity of the bombings, it was likely there were extensive oral exchanges between the then minister, Department officials and gardaí.
"It gives rise to the suspicion that there is concealment involved but those suspicions don't stand up to scrutiny."
Mr Peter Power TD (FF) said Mr Justice Barron said the contrary. Mr McDowell said the Monaghan report went into the Department but not the Dublin report.
"If a report came in from the Garda Síochána, it isn't immediately assumed that a new file was opened by the Department." He said new files were registered.
"I believe that no file was opened on the balance of probabilities. My own view is that the fact that there was a Garda report on the Dublin bombings does not mean that a file was opened for that document," he said.
Mr Power asked: "Are you telling me that on the biggest murder that has ever happened in the State, no file was opened up in the Department? Don't you think that's quite extraordinary?"
The Minister said: "If the investigation report came over from the Garda Síochána, in the sense that it was just looked at, it was conceivable that no file was created in relation to it and the Government did not open a file."
Mr Joe Costello TD (Lab) asked if it was possible the file was deliberately taken. Mr McDowell said: "If that happened, and I don't believe it did, on your conspiracy theory it would involve a lucky coincidence that a justice official failed to note and register the existence of the file."
Senator Jim Walsh (FF) said the Department had produced files on the other bombings but not on Dublin, the biggest atrocity.